Current arrangements for transfer of containers to and from dockside located marines vessels or ships involve use of a relatively large marine terminal crane. In large sea ports, delivery and retrieval of containers from the marine terminal crane is a bottleneck so as to require use of additional equipment and time consuming container transfer, leading to a line up of delivery vehicles awaiting container pickup. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for more efficient and less time consuming transfer of containers between a marine terminal crane and land based vehicles such as trucks and railroad trains.